7 - Eternity
by kaahiescheck
Summary: "She only had one wish now: to make it to Elysium. Not because she thought she deserved it, or because she was afraid of being sent to burn for eternity; in fact, she should very well be punishment, and she would accept it quietly. But she couldn't have that. She needed to get to Elysium to explain to Charlie. Explain everything and beg for his forgiveness."


**Oh, no! Cliché much?**

**My smallest one so far. I've never tried writing Charlena, but I guess I didn't want to stick to my _Percabeth-and-Marauders_ thing for pretty much the whole challenge. Let's have a bit of variety, shall we?**

**I seriously hope it didn't turn up horrible. I had too many ideas for this theme and couldn't pick one. I hope you like it!**

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The last thing she remembered before dozing off was Clarisse's angry face glimmering with tears, Percy looking down at her with an expression mixing sadness and astonishment, Annabeth knelt beside her silently crying, and Chris a bit behind Clarisse, almost out of her vision.

And then she was in the Underworld, still crying. She had plenty of time in line to mourn and blame herself for the many deaths she had caused. She thought being dead brought peace to one's soul – but she had been wrong. She'd never felt the pain of those deaths more strongly.

She only had one wish now: to make it to Elysium. Not because she thought she deserved it, or because she was afraid of being sent to burn for eternity; in fact, she _should_ very well be punishment, and she would accept it quietly. But she couldn't have that. She needed to get to Elysium to explain to Charlie. Explain everything and beg for his forgiveness.

"Well, what do we have here?" the first judge said. He and his two companions were three cloaked men wearing golden masks, and they all looked into her mind, reading her life like an open book. "Silena Beauregard, huh? Daughter of Aphrodite."

"Punishment!" other said energetically. "She betrayed her friends!"

Silena opened her mouth to complain, but the third judge was faster. "True. However, she made the ultimate sacrifice to try to fix things." She nodded her head forcefully, "Yes, I did. I wanted to set everything right."

"Your being dead changed anything, my dear?" the second one asked – the one that wanted to torture her for the rest of the days.

"We have to look into the meanings," the first one stated thoughtfully. "And I believe this young lady, despite her betrayal, deserves a reward. She fought her way back."

"And brought more people to help with their side of the war," the third pointed out. Her eyes were growing widened.

"But she killed a lot," the first commented.

"And passed valuable information to the enemy in spite of her friends' lives," the second added.

"I never meant to hurt anyone," Silena pleaded, taking a step forward. "I didn't know what to do anymore, and I feel _horrible_ –" She was interrupted by the first judge raising his hand calmly; her voice was silenced. "Save your breath." She almost panicked.

There was silence for a moment, in which the judges glanced at each other and at her. If she still had a heartbeat, it would have been to the roof. She needed this. She couldn't spend eternity away from him. The thought itself was hurtful.

The middle man, also the one who had first addressed her, pointed at her. "You mean to get into Elysium, but not by the usual reasons. You do not care about having a good afterlife." She shook her head, still unable to speak.

"It should be enough reason," the third one said.

"She _is_ the daughter of the goddess of love," the second one finally came to side with the others.

"Very well."

She braced herself for the verdict.

"You may enter Elysium. Next!"

Her mouth hung open as she was pointed the right way. She could barely keep her excitement and ran all the way to the Greek afterlife paradise. She smelt the barbecue and heard the laughter, but she paid no attention to any of that. Instead, she called Charlie restlessly until she found him, sitting on the grass under a tree.

He smiled when he saw her and stood to hug her back when she launched herself at him, starting to cry again. But soon his smile flickered and he backed away to look at her. "You're here too early. What happened? You shouldn't have died so soon."

"Charlie, I'm so sorry," Silena said through her sobs, burying her head on his shoulder. "So, _so_ sorry. You didn't have to die, it's all my fault."

"Hey," he pulled away again and forced her chin up. "What are you talking about? It just happened. I had to explode the ship and I hope Percy made it out unharmed…"

"He did, he did," she tried to take a deep breath. "He's leading an army right now to protect Olympus, but it's _entirely my fault_ that everything went wrong!"

"Honey, you're here. You can't possibly –"

"_I'm a horrible person!_ Please, forgive me. I need to explain everything."

Beckendorf gave up for a while and just held her as she cursed herself. She wouldn't be able to speak two sentences coherently right now, as proven by her random Greek phrases in the middle of it all. He could feel something was really wrong, but he didn't bother worrying for a moment. They'd have eternity to talk.


End file.
